


Experience #11

by VirtualKibou



Category: Electronic Dance Music RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Music, F/M, Musicians, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2019-06-20 16:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15538635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirtualKibou/pseuds/VirtualKibou
Summary: 20 teens.10 locations.One impossible conspiracy.And multiple deadly twists to ensure none of them get out unscathed.





	1. Memory 1

**Author's Note:**

> This AU was previously published on my Wattpad, though I unpublished it for personal reasons circa 2017. Now, however, I've decided to give it another shot, this time on AO3!

_The darkness was all too real for her. It embraced her, it choked her, it suffocated her until she had no sense of the world around her. There she was, floating in a never-ending void of black, unable to help and unable to be helped._

_But just when she thought she would never wake up...she did._

* * *

Her eyelids flew apart in opposite vertical directions as she bolted upright from her position on the floor. Gasping for air, she looked around frantically, though she saw nothing dangerous in the unfamiliar enclosed area in which she was contained. Only after several seconds did she manage to calm down enough to wonder about her situation.

The first question she asked herself was, _Where am I and what am I doing here?_ For that, however, she had no definite answer; all she knew regarding her location was that she was in what appeared to be a sunlit underground cavern. Why she was in it and where it was located exactly, she had no idea.

 _Wait...who_ am _I?_

Slowly and shakily, she got to her feet, then looked down at herself, pushing her long blonde hair to the side to get a better look at her clothing. She saw she was wearing a casual, sleeveless, knee-length solid violet dress, along with equally violet sandals...and, dangling in front of her eyes like her hair, a necklace with a pendant. Straightening her back, she grasped the pendant in her right hand and brought it closer to her face to get a better look.

The pendant was small, shiny, and—in contrast to the other two articles of clothing— silver. Upon closer inspection, it also appeared to be in the shape of a geometric Z, though she couldn't recall seeing this particular form of the letter before.

"What..." she breathed as she let go of the pendant and allowed it to fall back onto her skin.

She tidied up her hair, trying to get comfortable, then tilted her head to the cavern ceiling. "Um, hello?" she called out softly. "Hello?" When no response came, she began quickly pacing around the cavern, her hands clasped behind her back.

Every few steps, a question fired through her head. Step step— _What even is this?_ —step step step— _Where is everyone?_ —step step step step step step— _Is this a dream or what?_ —step ste—

_Natalia._

She stopped pacing and froze as the name popped into her head. Nobody had said it—it had come on its own. _Natalia._ There it was again. It had to be her name...right?

"Natalia." As she said it aloud, another memory resurfaced—a very faint one involving her new necklace and a flash of wind and light. She could barely make it out, though at the same time she could've sworn there were other people in the memory. People whose faces she could not recognize, yet whom she knew nevertheless...

Natalia shook her head. "Whatever the hell this is, I want out."

More memories were flooding her head now, each lasting for barely half a second before making way for the next. She continued to shake her head, trying to get rid of them, and as she was doing so, she spotted a series of dark shapes on one of the cavern's walls. Carefully, she turned and approached the wall...

 _WELCOME TO EXPERIENCE #11_ , the etched letters spelled out.

"Holy shit" was all Natalia could say.


	2. Memory 2

"Um, hi?"

The boy saw and heard the girl shriek and jump about half a foot in the air as he called out to her from behind. Quickly she whirled around, her medium-length purple dress and long blonde hair swooshing in time with the movement. "Who are you and _what is happening_?!" she cried.

"Calm down!" he yelled, holding his hands out in front of him. "Look, I don't know what the hell's going on. I don't know where we are, what we're doing here, or even my fucking name, for God's sake! All I really know is that I'm dressed entirely in... _this_..."

The girl looked down at his clothes—a light purple shirt with darker violet shorts and shoes—and raised her eyebrows. "More purple, eh? Quite the new trend, it seems."

 _Shut up,_ the boy thought, though he never said it aloud.

There was a brief pause, during which the two stared at each other in silence, then the girl spoke again. "Without looking, I'm also going to assume you have a necklace. One with a silver _Z_ -shaped pendant, to be specific."

"No, I don't. But I do have this, in case you didn't already see it." The boy raised his right arm, his palm facing himself, revealing a darker silver arm band with a large fixed bead in the shape of a similar _Z_.

"Huh," she muttered, stepping forward to get a closer look. "Looks like it's just me with a necklace, then."

"Maybe. I dunno, though. This entire thing is freaking scary, to be honest."

"It really is. Anyways—" She slowly reached out her arm. "—we're probably going to have to get to know each other. I'm Natalia."

Timidly, the boy shook Natalia's hand; "Good to meet you, I guess. Like I said earlier, I don't even know my name, but it'll probably come to me eventually."

"It should. Like, I didn't know mine at first, either, then I just...remembered it. Along with something else." She looked away.

"What else?" he asked.

"The memory was faint, but from what I could see, it involved some sort of disaster. One with a lot of wind and light. That, and my necklace. For all I know, the disaster could be tied to the necklace. It didn't even look natural. Heck, it could be the reason we're here! But I dunno."

The boy shrugged. "Oh well. But hey, the more you—"

He didn't get to finish before it popped into his head along with a vision similar to the one Natalia had described: _Sid._

"Ahh!" Gasping, he bent down, put a hand to his right temple, and began breathing heavily. "Dear God...what..."

"What happened?!" Natalia cried out, getting into a defensive stance.

"Nothing! Well, except for the fact that I _remembered my name_!"

"You did?! What is it, then?!" Her eyes were wide.

"Sid."

"Ah, okay. Hello, Sid."

"Hi, Natalia."

Another pause followed before Natalia looked around and said, "We need to find a way out of here. We can't just stay in this goddamn place forever. Besides, there may be other people out there in similar situations that need assistance."

"That's possible," Sid responded. "But what if there's nobody else? What if we're legit the only ones here?"

"Shut up."

"Make me."

Natalia rolled her eyes, then grinned. "Then," she said as she beckoned for Sid to follow her, "come what may!"

Within a moment, they had rounded a corner and were out of sight.


	3. Fire 1

She loved the feeling of fire on her skin, the hot airy sensation of yellow flames licking at her unburnable flesh. Her golden hair rose and fell behind her, dry as straw and hot as the Sun but unable to be so much as singed. And all around, heat waves produced ripple effects in her surroundings, though she breathed in the scorched air like it was pure, cold oxygen.

To be roasted in such a way was a pleasure, and she embraced it every moment she could.

The sand beneath her feet had already been warm from the sunlight; however, the fire made it go from regular hot to searing hot. Still, she didn't mind - she was invincible, immune, tough-skinned - and this lack of attention made her feel powerful.  _I'm the only one who can do this without worrying,_ she told herself as she stretched her right arm out in front of her, palm up. A few seconds later, a small yellow flame danced above it, and she laughed out of pure ecstasy as she threw it up in the air and caught it again like a small ball.

Pyrokinesis was a whole lot of fun.

_If only I knew how I acquired it._

Just minutes before, she'd woken up on the desert floor, sand grains all over her orange tee and skirt. Her fuzzy memory had helped her out enough to provide her with a fleeting vision of light and wind, though she didn't know what it meant at all, if it meant anything. A dream? A flashback? Nothing? Whatever it was, she wanted to know.

_But until then..._

She took off running across the sand and felt the flames trail behind her like loose strings. The wind tried to extinguish them, though she knew that as long as she wanted them on her body, they'd stay - or so she hoped. She was still learning the ropes of being pyrokinetic, and without a mentor, what she could learn in such a short time frame was limited. And that was assuming there were pyrokinetics aside from her out in the world somewhere, which she knew was highly unlikely, if not totally impossible.

"I could be the only one," she mumbled to herself as she stopped running sometime after. "I could be the only one..."

In the distance, she heard a low rumbling making its way through the sky - thunder - and as she turned around, she saw dark-ish clouds forming slowly on the horizon.  _Shoot...a storm's coming...better stop playing for now._

The fire on her body, as if by magic, then completely dissipated into the surrounding air, and she started running once again. Bare sand was beginning to make way to grassy brush at this point, so the ground beneath her was rougher to run across; several small pebbles also poked at her feet as she made her way over the land. Her main focus, however, was not on what she was stepping on, but rather on finding a spot to hide from the storm...and she had to find one quickly.

She wasn't having too much luck, though - everywhere she looked, she saw open desert. No caves, no houses, just sand and minimal vegetation.  _Oh, for the lo-_

_BANG._

The lightning came down too fast for her to avoid, striking only a few feet away from where she was running. She was knocked her off her feet by its raw force and propelled backwards, and her back hit the sandy ground a moment later; the impact knocked most of the air out of her lungs, leaving her stunned and speechless. Her ears registered a crinkling noise in the seconds that followed - some nearby brush was on fire.

Though she couldn't speak with her mouth, however, it didn't stop her mind from screaming in terror.  _What the hell was that?!_

_"Fira."_

The whisper came almost immediately after she'd mentally asked herself the question. It wasn't a human whisper, though - there were multiple characteristics of it that told her it was something else. The crackling of its voice, the heat of its breath, the power of its general presence...

_The fire is...speaking?_

_"Yes, Fira, I am."_

Still lying on the ground, she - Fira - managed to open her mouth in a small oval.  _Fira...so that's my name..._

That was the last thing she thought before a flash of light overtook her vision and a rush of wind flooded her ears.


	4. Fire 2

Seven minutes, two face slaps, and one "Bitch, wake up!" later, Michael saw the girl's eyes flutter open and heard a scream escape from her mouth as she sprang to her feet. His reflexes caused him to jerk himself backwards - to avoid getting in her way - and be knocked off balance, ultimately landing on his hands and lower back. Though he wasn't hurt, he was stunned by her reaction - had something happened inside her while she was unconscious?

"A-are you okay?" he called out to the girl, who was now spinning her body around wildly for reasons he didn't know.

"What  _was_  that?! Where did the storm go?! And the fire! Why was it speaking?!" she quickly responded without turning her head to face him.

Michael blinked and got back onto his feet, brushing the sand off his orange clothes as he did. "The...fire?"

"Yes, the fire!" After a second, her spinning slowed down, and she turned to face him, eyes wide. "There was lightning, and it blew me off my feet, and then I heard it speaking to me, and then there were -"

"Okay, okay,  _slow down_. What were you doing before then?"

"There was a storm coming, so I started trying to find a hiding spot...then the lightning struck. Prior to then I'd just been playing around with - you probably won't believe it - fire. Actual fire that just is capable of coming out of my body!" Her hands and arms were making short and spontaneous gestures as she spoke - when she mentioned the fire, they flew away from each other as a way of showing effect. "Never mind, though. Like I said -"

"Actually, I do believe it." Michael scratched his blonde-haired head, then looked at her again.

The girl gasped. "Wait, really?! Are you pyrokinetic too?!" she cried out, her mouth dropping open.

Immediately, Michael allowed his power to course through his veins, and within seconds, foot-high orange flames were bursting out of every pore in his skin. The feeling of it was incredible, and for a moment he forgot about the world and just stood there, surrounded by the fire, before snapping back to reality and extinguishing the flames.

When he was done with the showcase, he saw the girl staring at him in awe; "Holy crap...it's not just me!"

"Obviously," he said with a laugh. "Anyways, what's your name?"

"Fira," she responded, smiling. "And yours?"

"Michael. It's Michael. Also, just for clarification regarding the previous topics, I found you lying on the ground unconscious about ten minutes ago and was wondering what was up. I mean, I know now. But...anything else you feel you should say?"

Fira bit her lip. "Well...after the fire spoke to me...I had a flashback or something. There was a lot of wind...and a lot of light...but I don't know what is means, exactly." She then reached toward her chest, grabbed a small silver necklace pendant in the shape of a geometric  _Z_ , and held it up for him to see. "Something about this, too."

"Hmm," he mumbled, taking a moment to think; after which he spoke again: "I don't have a necklace, but -" He pointed at his right wrist, where a medium-thickness orange band with a silver bead rested snugly.  "- I do have a bracelet. Could they be related...?"

With a sigh, Fira said, "I'm really not sure."

There was a silence between them for a moment, then Michael broke it with an idea. "I think we should go check out the rest of the desert. Also, there could be stuff beyond it, too, and we probably shouldn't miss it. Your thoughts?"

Fira nodded, then turned to face the horizon, her blonde hair billowing like smoke in the hot desert wind. "Sounds like a plan."


End file.
